Strange things happen when you’ve been up all night (it’s 4am in China) working on branding strategy while chewing gum (thanks mom/dad!) and eating kale chips (I miss Whole Foods!). Though it has nothing to do with anything I’m currently doing, these lyrics from Lauryn Hill’s song Selah keep running through my mind, “In all of my religion, I have fortified this prison…”

I keep thinking of a conversation that I had with a colleague here in China about the government here…he simply said, “We are controlled.”

Although religion and government can be seen as institutions which take away control from the individual (in favor of the collective)…others view both paths as means to liberation (religion offers some sanctuary…and an open/democratic government can be a sanctuary for people from oppressive regimes) .